Hello 2009!

In 40 minutes that is. I'm trying really hard to make it up until midnight tonight. So if you have some weird comments on your blogs... sorry, I'm up way past my bedtime ;)

I'm really looking forward to a new year. I'm not one for resolutions though, so... I'm just going to try to do better at everything for as long as I can ;)

I'm just glad to say goodbye to 2008. It wasn't quite the best year around here. All told, we had a really rough year. I won't bore you with all the gory details... but we did have some good things happen. And for those things I am very grateful. And feel so very fortunate. One of the good things that will be coming out of this year is a new baby at the end of June. We are really looking forward to this new addition :)

And this year, we won't be making any rash decisions about moving ;) that was our biggest mistake of 2008, which we will not be repeating anytime soon! We were just so fortunate that we were able to move back to our home and find employment in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm just really hoping that this whole digital conversion thing helps out with our television reception. We are probably one of the few people who do not have cable or satellite. We have a good old fashioned antenna on our roof and an ancient tuner on top of the tv. Right now we are really trying to watch the New Year's Eve special, but its not working out so well... between the intermittent snow and blue screen... unfortunately the NBC channel we get best decided to show some lame drama instead of the New Year's Special... last year they opted for their local sports show. Grrr. Sorry Carson. Wish we could watch. We used to watch the Dick Clark show when we were kids. I think they still have it on, but we very rarely are able to get in ABC or CBS. Well, that's something to be hopeful about in the new year, if we can find a converter box that is... (my last complaint of 2008!)

I'm going to try for being more positive in 2009!

Happy New Year!!

Just a little blurb about the holidays...

I have been a horrible bloggy buddy as of late... but I would imagine that most people are pretty busy this time of year. And its the same around here... busy getting ready for the holiday, busy with the holidays... busy recovering from said holidays...everyone is home from work and school... so alone time is just impossible ;) and leisure time? Well, its been spent spending time with the kids. Breaking up fights over little people and monster trucks...

When do we have to quit watching Christmas movies? Can we just watch them all year long? Or should I put them away until after Thanksgiving next year? I know there are a few my little ones will miss.

I noticed one of my friends on facebook had their status as having put away all the x-mas boxes until next year. She must've packed up the day after x-mas. Around here we leave everything up until New Year's Day (or the day after). It just seems too early to do it any sooner.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and here's wishing you all a Happy New Year!!!

I'll be back around when everyone goes back to work and school.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is on here! We've been tracking Santa's progress with the Norad Santa Tracker. The kids are all excited! And we are too. We broke down this afternoon and let them open one of their gifts already. I know, shame on us ;) We usually let them open one gift on X-Mas Eve, and then the rest on X-Mas morning. But every year we end up letting them open one a day or two before X-Mas Eve, and somehow this year we didn't do that. But they've been better about keeping themselves entertained this year.

Last night when we were going to bed I started talking about Santa to D.
Me: "Tomorrow night, when you go to sleep...and then wake up in the morning-"
D: "Watch Clifford!"
Me: "Well, you might watch Clifford, but tomorrow night when you go to sleep Santa Claus will come!"
D: "Santa come and pull D's pants up"
Me: "What??!! No, Santa is going to come tomorrow night while you are sleeping and bring presents"
D: "Santa bring pprrreeessssents!!"
Me: "Yes! Santa will bring everyone presents! What is Santa going to bring D?"
D: "pppprrrreeessseeennnnts"

The other day he said that Santa was going to bring him a footstool :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas!!

And We Have Winners!

The two winners for my first ever giveaway for the Ferrero Christmas Tree full of Chocoaltes were:

JanetFaye from Grammy Janet's Place
Nut Nut from Nutty Tales

Next time I'm totally going to do a random number generator :) It took a very long time to write out all those names! ;) But of course I was happy to see so many people stop by and comment! I had my husband help out by drawing the names from a hat. I thought about letting the two little ones do it, but I'm sure they would have chewed up the names before I could get them :)

Check you emails and be sure to email me with your address so I can contact the sponsor!

Congrats ladies and enjoy the chocolates!!! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Card Outtakes #'s 3-5

Don't forget to enter my sweet giveaway here!

One Sweet Giveaway!

My very first giveaway is an especially sweet one!

"For the second straight year, the Ferrero Company has partnered with Share Our Strength®, one of the nation’s leading organizations working to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. The partnership extends beyond a typical donation and helps create awareness and understanding of this important issue in ways that resonate with Americans. A perfect pairing, both companies have a deep passion for food as well as the ever-growing concern of childhood hunger in America." (Share Something Sweet).

This partnership is in its second year, and this year Ferrero has donated $150,000 to Share Our Strength and is giving others a chance to add to that donation. Right now, if you log on to Share Something Sweet and use it to "send something sweet" (that is, a customizable e-card), Ferrero will donate another $1 per e-card sent, up to $10,000.

And for every person that joins the Ferrero Facebook page, "Ferrero Lovers Unite," Ferrero will donate another $1 to Share Our Strength (up to $1,000).

To win one of these wonderful Ferrero Chocolate Christmas Tree gift boxes filled with Ferrero chocolates just leave a comment!

For an extra entry subscribe to my feed (if you are already a subscriber let me know).
You may also gain an extra entry for following me! (again, if you are already a follower, let me know!)

I will randomly draw the two winners Friday, Dec 19th at 5pm. Please be sure that you leave your email in the comment if your email address is not on your blog (or if you do not have a blog). I will email the winners as soon as I draw the names.

Christmas Card Outtakes #2

Where did D go? Baby sister swiped his antlers again and then got mad when E took them away from her!

Christmas Card Outtakes #1

Those of you with more than one child (even those with one child) know how difficult it is to get that much sought after Christmas Card picture every year! We usually make a big deal out of it, get the kids all festively dressed and such... but this year we just decided to do it spontaneously after the tree was all decorated... so the kids are all in their jammies...

And my son, for some reason has this thing with this hat... it is his superhero hat. Don't ask me what kind of superhero would wear this kind of hat... but whatever makes him happy and whatever gets him to take a nap ;) but of course he insists on wearing it much of the time - christmas card photo shoot session was no exception. We just put the antlers on top of his hat. No problem. Except for the fact that baby B just wouldn't leave his antlers alone :)

Weekend Reflection

Well, here I am sitting waiting for a big snow storm! Its supposed to start snowing today and not stop until Monday! Over the last week, it has snowed just about every day, but its only been flurries. Last week we got a few inches. And its been freezing here! Yesterday it was -16 at 8am. Today its actually warmer.

We've spent the last week or so watching Christmas movies :) D's favorite one is Rudolph. I think D really has a good idea about what the whole Santa Claus thing is this year and its pretty exciting! I keep asking him what Santa is going to bring him and he just says "presents."He had lots of fun helping the older girls decorate the tree this year.


And I think I may have solved part of my photo uploading problem. I think most of it had to do with my virus software... not sure, but when I uninstalled it I was able to upload pics one at a time (it still failed out a couple of times and still failed out every time I tried to upload more than one...) so we'll see how it works with the new virus program I installed... 'cause of course you just can't be without virus protection! :)

Visit Healthy Moms for more Weekend Reflections

Wordless Wednesday: Antler Edition

WooHoo!

I finally got one photo uploaded! It was a fluke ;) Well, several times now I've had success only with the first photo upload - and those times I have just chosen a random photo to see if its working... so this time I got smart ;) and tried to upload a picture that I wanted to use first! And it worked!! :) Of course I was aiming for a series of 3 photos, but one will work out just fine thank you! :) So be sure to come back tomorrow when I will have my first Wordless Wednesday in weeks!! (yes, I scheduled the post for tomorrow).

For about the first time ever the southern parts of Wisconsin got more snow than here up north! But we finally got a few inches! Not that I'm really excited about it or anything... while it is absolutely beautiful in the pine trees, I am not into the winter driving. I just hate it. And snow is in our forecast for at least the next 7 days. I'm going to try to get out while its good and stock up on groceries. Mostly Nemo fruit snacks and goldfish, which we are completely out of! And I've been hearing about it all day. Oh yeah, and those Lightning McQueen pull ups! Regular diapers are just not fun anymore, not while there's Lightning McQueen pull ups!

Weekend Reflection: Holiday Traditions

Cascia from Healthy Moms started this really neat meme: Weekend Reflection I thought I would give it a shot this weekend.

This morning I was thinking about some of our holiday traditions, and then some traditions that we had when I was growing up. Mainly because I was thinking about food and remembering these hors d'oeuvres my mom used to make for New Year's Eve. They were the best! But they took so long to make, we would all help. She would take a bag of Doritos, spread a little dab of refried beans on a dorito, add a sprinkle of cheese and then a slice of a green olive and then pop them in the oven until the cheese melted. We would do up just about the whole bag. And those things were so tasty that they wouldn't last longer than 30mins tops. Can you imagine how much work that took? But it was so worth it.

I really wanted to make these when we had our first New Year's Eve party as a family. We had my sister in law and her daughter over to stay the night. But of course with the amount of time it would have taken to do those hors d'oeuvres, we settled for a big pan of refried bean dip with cheese and slices of green olives on top. But it just didn't taste the same. One of these New Year's Eves I will totally make those hors d'oeuvres. Maybe it will be in a few years when I will have more than one child able to help put them all together. My mom probably only did it because she had about three of us in a line: one spreading the beans, one sprinkling the cheese and one placing the slice of olive.

I know, crazy to be thinking about New Year's Eve when Christmas is approaching way too fast ;)

With our own family we have started a few traditions of our own that we really enjoy. Every year, the morning after Thanksgiving we always have a pie breakfast. The kids really enjoy that one!

Our special Christmas tradition used to be to make a big fire in the fireplace and get all cozy. But we haven't had a fireplace since we moved up to Wisconsin... But last year we got one of those big heaters that looks like a fireplace, so that was a nice stand-in last year. Also last year the two older girls made their own gingerbread houses and we had tons of fun doing that! We will probably try to do that one again this year. Of course there was a little more licking fingers going on the building ;) but why not?

And for New Year's Eve our special thing is to get a bunch of snacky oven foods (tater skins, buffalo wings, mini tacos, taquitos, etc...) and just munch the night away :) I think that one's my favorite :)

Vocabulary of B

Is it just me or do girls gain their vocabulary at a faster rate/earlier age? I swear my son didn't say more than a few words until he was maybe 2 or older. (Of course he pretty much went from one word utterings to almost full sentences about overnight!).

Baby B is almost 14 months, and her verbal skills are just amazing to me. When she sees daddy she will say "Hi Daayee!" when she vacates my lap she will wave and say "buh-bye seeya."

She will point and say "wassat?"

This morning she was calling to our little dog sally "saay saay." She can say the other dog's name pretty good too - "jo-jo." My son D named her when he was a little over 2 years old. Around the time my husband brought her home, D was saying "Jo-Jo" quite a bit. Around here, they call the potato wedges (like from KFC) Jo-Jo's and he really liked them.

And she loves her big brother "Duh Duh"

It's been quite interesting having a boy and a girl within a couple years of each other, in comparing how and when they reach certain milestones. I do know that all children are different and regardless, reach those milestones in their own time. But through my observation, there does seem to be a difference between the genders. It seems to me that boys reach those physical feats sooner than the girls. D was crawling, pulling himself up, cruising and walking much earlier than B. And I remember my neice, who is 2 mos younger than D, also seemed to reach those physical types of milestones a little later than he did (while her verbal skills continued to be way ahead of his). But on the other hand, it seems that the motor skills, hand-eye coordination and manipulation of fingers and objects happens a little quicker with the girls. And the girls also reach those social milestones a little quicker.

Has anyone else noticed these kinds of gender differences in reaching milestones?

I know, I know...

It's been forever since I posted anything of worth. And today just isn't going to be one of those days either. This whole photo upload business has me frustrated as heck! (being very polite there). Apparently there are other people having this problem. I've looked all over message boards and all the miracle fixes that worked for everyone else...?? not so much here. I've tried it all. It's firefox, its IE7, its facebook, myspace, youtube, its the proxy, its the cookies, its the firewall, its a couple of lines in the config of firefox, its the dns server settings, its the wireless connection... the list goes on... and its none of those here... so here I am unable to upload any photos anywhere. Grrrrrr. I've spent all day trying to fix it. By some kind of fluke I was able to upload one picture to my family/friends update blog and of course it was a picture of a pie... but could not get any more uploaded.

Anyway, aside from the photo issues... Thanksgiving was pretty good around here. Tons of food, tons of leftovers. We are finally down to just a sandwhich or two of turkey left :) My step-daughter was able to spend the holiday with us and we had a really good time. We all set up the Christmas tree on Saturday. D was even old enough this year to help and had a great time doing it.

Then we attempted to get a good picture of all the kids in front of the Christmas tree for the Christmas card... You can imagine, 4 kids... 12 pictures... 0 good ones. There may be one or two that aren't all that horrible. Unfortunately, it was about our only opportunity to get all the kids together in a picture. Maybe I should do a photoshopped one this year? ;)

Go Vote for Me!

Since I have nothing better to do today (no, I don't have a mountain of laundry waiting to be folded or to go into the washer and I certainly don't have a counter full of dishes beckoning to me...) I spent some time today entering a bunch of contests, hoping to win some things to make our Christmas a little better...
And who wouldn't want to win a wii?? My kids have been bugging me for one since it came out. So I entered a contest to win one... so please go vote for me here!!
And don't forget to enter the Christmas Giveaway at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Did I ever mention...

That my husband is a total genius? Well, maybe I did over here.

Seriously, the man has great ideas. Whenever I have any kind of problem or issue, he thinks about it and always comes up with a wonderful and creative solution.

The problem this time was that baby B will not leave her socks on. Of course it was no problem when the weather was warm. But now, it's been cold for a couple/few weeks here and the girl will just not leave anything on her feet. Her piggies have been freezing cold! I go get her socks several times a day, and within minutes they disappear. And one always disappears deeper than the other and just cannot be located. I had gotten to the point where if we were going somewhere I would remove her socks and shoes as soon as we got to the (warmed up) car so that I could put them back on when it was time to go in (otherwise the car would absolutely swallow one sock - never to be retrieved).

So yesterday, here's my baby girl, trying to pull her shirt off, running around with bare freezing piggies... Daddy takes her into the bedroom to, I assume, get her some worthless socks... Instead she comes out looking like she dressed herself ;) [I have been trying all morning to load pictures so that you can see for yourself, but no such luck. I am still having horrid issues with uploading pictures and am ready to throw a huge fit! So I will just lamely describe her attire for you: pink patterned long sleeved pj shirt, short sleeved pink patterned dress, and blue snowflake tights]. At first I was a little horrified, but we weren't going anywhere, so... then I realized what a piece of genius went into the dressing.

Dad had put a dress on over her pj shirt so she couldn't lift it. And the best thing? He found a pair of tights to put on her! While they were a little on the big side, they certainly did the trick. She sat down and pulled on them a few times before she finally had to give up and suffer the rest of the day with warm piggies!

Needless to say, we went out and bought a bunch of tights!

Now if we could just find some shoes that she can't wiggle out of.

Christmas of Dreams Contest at MomDot!

MomDot is hosting this fabulous Christmas of Dreams contest! One lucky winner will receive prizes from all of the sponsors listed below (a total of over $1000 in prizes!). Who couldn't use this prize to help with Christmas? I know we sure could! So hop on over there and check it out!

• Dyson
  
• BabyPop
• The Shrunks
• Soda Club
• Kadi Prescott
• Uncommonly Cute
• Lollipop Book Club
• Kuster
• Silly Monkeez
• LA Plates
• Natitys Design
• Little Black Box
• Koshas
• Kidz Sunglasses
• jaC Jewelry
• Appledonia
• LeapFrog
• Mutsy
• Kushies
• Huddy Buddy
• Mimsi-Bags
• BottleWise
• Lets Go Strolling
• DaBib
• Sassy Baby
• Baby Legs
• Scentsy
• FeeFiFoto
• Randi100
• Organic Blankees
• Shi Shu Style
• Georgie Tees

Everything's a NoGo Today

Grrrr.

I tried and tried at least 20 times to upload a series of really cute pictures for Photo Story Friday. And I kept getting a page load error - it seems every time I try to upload pictures my internet connection is resetting itself in the middle of the process... I kept trying again and trying again. I usually have enough patience to wait it out and eventually I can get the pictures to go through. But this time, after an hour of re-trying I just gave up. The same thing seems to happen every time I try to update my family/friends blog. Its so irritating.

So then I thought it was a great time to post an award that Missy at Bees and Boo-Boos gave me... I meant to do it on Thursday, but then I had a bunch of other things going on around the house... so I tried to get the picture of the award to load, thinking that maybe it was erroring out because I was trying to upload too many pics at the same time and if I only did one something magical would happen and it would work ;)

Not so much. But this time I was getting a blogger error. Double Grrrrr. Maybe tomorrow will be a better photo upload day?

Until then, here I am, photoless and awardless today :(

PS: those strange little boxes you see at the bottom here are my efforts to copy and paste the image of the award. And of course now I can't find where I tried to copy and paste them, so they are just stuck there doing nothing ;) Triple Grrrrr.

And since I'm just rambling on here... when I changed my template and had to re-do my blogroll I inadvertently left some people out! If you are one of those people please let me know! Or if you want to be on my blogroll and aren't let me know. I think I've found most of the ones I was missing... I don't know how that happened. Well, actually I do - I think I just filled it from my "blogs I'm following" list - which left out anyone not on blogger and anyone who is on blogger but doesn't have their list of followers on the sidebar for me to click ;) My feeds are just a mess and completely unorganized and all over the place. I have some in Explorer (which I just don't even use anymore), some in foxfire (which I just didn't like the way the feeds work there) and then some in my google reader (which I haven't even opened in months!)... and somehow I managed to find that I didn't have some that I read all the time in any of my readers... I must have just put them in my blogroll only at some point. Confusing I know. I've just been doing my visiting by clicking on my blogroll or clicking on the person in the comments section. The feed readers are great and all, but I always end up clicking over to the blog itself, so it was an extra step and I'm all about not wasting any time ;)

What do you use for your feeds? And how do you keep them organized?

Wordless Wednesday: Kung-Fu Napping

Kung-Fu Panda looks like he may be re-thinking his decision to take a nap

Frankenberry Pie

Ever make something that doesn't look quite right? But then it ends up tasting marvelous?! We had some bags of frozen berries hanging out in our deep freezer for a while, so we decided to try our hand at a homemade pie.
We found a recipe for a mixed berry pie online, and of course I can't find it now to link to it, but the recipe we used is as follows:

• 2 frozen pie shells
• 4 cups berries
• 2/3 cp sugar
• 7 tblsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tblsp lemon juice
• 3 tblsp grape juice

Bring the pie crusts out to thaw for 15-20 mins. Pre-heat the oven to 375. Put the berries into the thawed pie crust. Mix the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Then add the lemon juice and grape juice to the dry mixture. Pour over the berries. Put the second pie crust on top of the first one, crimping the edges together. Cut slits in the top pie crust to vent. Put the pie onto a foil covered cookie sheet (preferrably one with sides as the pie will boil over). Bake it for an hour.

Unfortunately, my top crust had troubles coming out of the foil pan, and this is what I ended up with ~ We decided it looked a little like Frankenstein's monster, so we named it Frankenberry Pie!

But amazingly, it didn't look too bad coming out! It almost looks like the criss cross crust on fancy pies ;) I said almost ;)
The cornstarch really helped hold it all together. We were amazed at how it didn't come spilling over after we cut out our pieces. The fruit usually spills out of the store bought frozen pies.

While it may have looked horrendous in the beginning, we all decided that it was the best pie we'd ever had! We are going to make some more for Thanksgiving this year!

And the snow is falling!

We had our first substantial snow of the season yesterday. All told it was maybe a couple of inches, not much, but enough to coat the pine trees and make everything look quiet and serene. I should have gotten a picture, because words can rarely do justice to the beauty. The snow didn't stick around for too long, it started raining last night and most of the snow is gone now. I think the snow in the trees lasted for an hour or two before it was blown off. My son was so tickled by the snow. I can't wait until it really snows and we can go outside and play. I'm sure that he will really enjoy it so much more this year. It will be the first year we can take the baby out to play in the snow too! It will be a thrill for about a week or so ;) and then I will be ready for winter to be over.

I remember when we were kids, we would go out everyday all winter long and play in the snow for hours. It seemed as though we never got too cold. We'd spend hours making extravagant snow forts and tunnels and families of snowpeople and our yard would be decorated with snow angels of all sizes.

But now as an adult, its always too cold for me! :) Does something happen inside your body that makes you feel the cold more when you get older? Because our kids are the same as we were when we were kids - they can't stay outside in the snow long enough. It probably has something to do with children having a higher metabolism or something.

For now I'm just going to stock up on hot chocolate and wait for the first big snow of the season, which is probably just around the corner.

Fortune Cookies :)

Gotta love 'em! We had Chinese tonight for the first time in probably about a year. Our favorite Chinese restaurant is 500 miles away and we noticed last time we were in town that they had been bought by someone else... :( It can be difficult to find good Chinese food. There is only one restaurant anywhere near here. Luckily its pretty good. And they actually have the cream cheese wantons! ;) Those are my favorite. When I lived in Tucson, I was so disappointed to find that none of the Chinese restaurants had anything close to crab rangoon (or cream cheese wanton as its called here).

But the funny thing was that the fortunes were quite appropriate tonight. Well, not exactly the fortunes themselves, but these fortunes also had Chinese words on them. My husband's was "teacher," mine was "mother," and our 11-year old daughter's was "pork chop." The first two are pretty self-explanatory. My husband is a teacher and I am a mother. While my daughter is certainly not a pork chop, the word was just as fitting for her as ours were to us. The girl is completely obsessed with food. We all had a good laugh.

I'm certain that someday she will be starting her own "foodie" blog :)

Hat Modeling at its Finest ;)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I love to crochet hats! Baby B absolutely hates to wear hats!
I've made her several hats, but she just will not keep them on. I made a couple of hats last year, one was for one of my toddler nieces, but it ended up too small so I figured that B would fit it eventually. And it does fit her this year ;) It was a little challenging to get her to leave the hat on long enough to take a picture! Most pics ended up like this first one.
But I was able to get one good one!


This hat I made for her last winter, but it ended up too big for her then, but looks like it fits good this year! This one is an ear-flap hat, so I just need to finish it up and make the ties. She'll have a hard time getting this one off when its tied :)
Ahhhh. Hat modeling session finally over!

Gerber 2nd Foods With DHA

We were recently given the opportunity to sample Gerber 2nd Foods Purees with DHA along with some Organic foods from Gerber.

We've always fed our babies Gerber products, so we were really excited to see that they now have Organic foods and foods that have DHA added. DHA is naturally found in breast milk and helps support brain and eye development.

I especially have enjoyed the greater variety of offerings with the additions of these foods. Along with the organic rice cereal, I feel great feeding my baby girl the fruits mixed with grains, oats or granola for breakfast. And she really loves them.

They have also recently added 2nd foods dinners with DHA to their line of foods.

Included in the sample package we received were: Spring Vegetables with Brown Rice, Harvest Vegetables with Mixed Grains, Garden Vegetables with Whole Wheat Pasta, Macaroni & Cheese with Vegetables, Vegetable Risotto with Cheese and Organic Brown Rice Cereal. Both Baby B and I have been pleased with the new line of foods. And we are really grateful for the opportunity from Gerber to sample them.

Wordless Wednesday: Peek-a-boo!

What I love about small town life

We left for our polling place at 4:10pm. We were home by 4:20!! My husband and I were the only ones there and got our voting done within a few minutes. We were #90 and #91!

I might complain about small town life every now and then, but at times like this, man do I love it!

I hope everyone got out and voted today or will tonight! And I hope y'all didn't have to wait too long!

We've Got Pumpkins...And Costumes

My husband's pumpkin turned out the spookiest! Look at those big teeth!

First we tried some of those pumpkin carving stencils. My husband was the only one to finish one and it turned out pretty cool, it's a wolf howling at the moon...

I was going to do a cute little kitty cat, but couldn't get the stencil taped on good... so I did this instead
And our daughter M also tried her hand at a stencil, but it was one of the more difficult ones (a big scary tree - so much detail work!), so after getting half of it done, she decided to just do a freehand carving too - her's is the one on the left. They all turned out pretty cute :)

And our favorite part of pumpkin carving? Roasting the seeds! (Of course I forgot to take a picture after they came out of the oven, but they were darn good!)

The getting dressed and getting pictures of the kids in their costumes was the really fun part ;)
Baby B was trying to help Spiderman get his hat on :)Amazingly, they were all in this shot! Though Spidey has just seen something awry in the playroom and is off to the rescue.

All three kids enjoyed the trick-or-treating! This year we actually drove to a nearby city with a population of maybe 500 or so. We went to about 10 or so houses there. And then we stopped and hit our town on the way home. We went to maybe 4 houses there (the town consists of about 10 houses - we live in a town with a population under 100!). But the kids made out about as good as we did when we were kids (and we used to hit about 50 houses in the big city we lived in!). Last year we only went to about 7 houses in our town and got tons of candy. But of course it took forever because for every house it was an in and out of the car deal. D was only 2 then and had very little concept of trick-or-treat anyway. This year he actually said it! In between houses ;) But he did manage to say thank you to a sweet old man.

He was too funny - last year at the very first house we went to he just walked in and sat on the couch! The old couple were really nice and had invited us in anyway, but I hadn't planned on going in. Back in the city where I grew up you *never* went into anyone's house! But it's pretty customary around here. Ah, the small town life :) This year he didn't barge into anyone's house until we got to that same house again, which was the last house we visited this year. He must think her house is homey :) She got a kick out of it and gave him a big ol' kiss! And an extra piece of candy. What a charmer :)

I've Been Boo-ed

Kaci at Ellyphant has boo-ed me!


This is how the Blogging Boo will go. Go to as many bloggy peeps as you want and tell them they've been B00-ed! Have them link back to your blog to pick up their Halloween Treat (picture) and tell them to Boo their peeps. (Then put the pic in your side bar so everyone knows that you've already been "boo-ed and to send the pic to someone else). Watch your comments to see if you get booed!

Such a cool idea :) And to join in the celebration of Halloween, I'm offering up a picture of me and one of my brothers and one of my sisters... I think I was in about 2nd grade. My mother was super creative and every year she would home make our costumes! She always had the coolest ideas! Of course I had always hoped that I would do such things with my children... but I guess I'm just a little lazy ;) No, really, the kids want the store bought costumes. Some year I will talk them into homemade costumes, and I will have the time and energy for it! :)


My brother is on the left and is a mummy. I'm sure it was made out of a sheet. And my sister is Raggedy Ann! My mom even made the hair out of yarn! I am the Martian. For some strange reason I was a Martian for several years running. This one was the tinfoil box with a tinfoil helmet :) One year I had 3 eyes and 4 arms :)

Wordless Wednesday: Rocking Chair Follies

Baby B figured out how to climb into the rocking chair yesterday! And she loves it!! :)

D decided to show his appreciation for the rocking chair yesterday too!

Toddler-Proofing

Just when you think you've got your whole house baby-proofed, guess what? That's when it's time to start toddler-proofing everything. They end up messing with the craziest, most uninteresting things too. Like curtains and tables...

A couple of weeks ago D figured out how to turn the TV off... and at the same time Baby B figured out she could reach the volume control. I leave the room and the TV goes off and the volume goes all the way up. Now I would have just spent my days turning the TV back on and volume down, but luckily I'm married to a genius. The first time it happened while my husband was home, he fixed it.

This play-yard has come in so very handy! We had been using 4 of the 6 pieces to close off the second living room to corral the two little ones when we needed some little kid free zombie movie watching time (they rarely pay any attention to adult stuff on tv [aside from the commercials that is] but throw in a zombie movie and all of a sudden they're interested!). Nicely these things come apart in sections of two. So we can still corral them when necessary :) Of course D can climb right over, but if we stick them both in there most of the time he will play.

Notice the lack of lid on the toybox? Of course it was one of those "safe" lids that don't slam shut and has plenty of openness for breathing room... but D kept wanting to close his baby sister in, and both of them kept getting their fingers pinched in it. Of course baby B figured out last week that she could shimmy her little self into the toybox for some major fun play.


And I didn't even know they made blanked out switch/outlet plates! But it became necessary in our house due to major infatuation with the outlet. I put those plastic plugs in, but they also soon became a much sought after plaything/chewthing. Of course this made D really mad. Every time he looks at it he tells me to open it back up. No way is that going to happen. Not until they are at least 10 or so. ;) OK, maybe 6? When does the fascination with sticking your fingers into something you're not supposed to end?

The Stacker ;)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Ever have this happen? You leave the room for a few minutes only to return and see that your pantry has been raided? And the little raider has decided that he would much rather have the pantry in a place more accessible, such as the bench at the kitchen table. And he would also appreciate the cans being stacked instead of having one can behind another. More visible this way.

Wordless Wednesday: Sweetness

Blackmail photo for when he's older? ;)

OK, I know this is "wordless" Wednesday, and I should have just saved this picture for Photostory Friday... but I just can't help myself ;)

I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Back when we were kids, my oldest younger brother was always wanting to play dolls with me and my oldest younger sister... he wanted a baby doll of his own. My mom decided to get him his own baby doll for Christmas that year. Both my step-father and my uncle were totally appalled and against it. My mother justified it by saying that little boys needed to learn how to be fathers. So she went against their wishes and bought my brother his own baby doll for Christmas.

When my little brother opened that baby doll on Christmas Eve he was so surprised and so happy. He grabbed that baby doll and gave it a big hug and kept saying "my baby, my baby." He was just so overjoyed at having his own baby doll that it brought tears to just about everyone's eyes. After that, my uncle decided to get a baby doll for his son.

When I was pregnant with Baby B, I decided it was a good time to get D his own baby doll. I thought it would help him adjust to the new baby. I think it helped. Of course after a while he had forgotten about his baby doll. But yesterday I got Baby B her first baby doll and that renewed D's interest in his baby doll. They both ran around hugging and fussing over their baby dolls yesterday. Of course I was really trying to get a picture of both of them holding their baby dolls, but you know how hard it can be to get two little ones to cooperate for a picture :)

Teething Times Three and An Award!

Well, Baby B's first 5 teeth came in with very little problems. She was just a tad fussier than normal (which isn't much at all). She actually got her first two teeth right in the middle of our move in March, while we were spending a week in a motel. It was amazing that she wasn't too bothered by her first teeth. (D on the other hand, was very fussy with his first four or five, then not so much after that).

But this week? Baby B is sprouting 3 new teeth all at once! She's getting two in the middle on the sides up top and one in the middle/side of the bottom. The poor baby has been quite fussy and clingy. And angry ;)

We have finally worked it down to nursing only in the middle of the night... and she's been really good and only waking up once, sometimes twice a night - and usually not until 3 or 4. But last night? She was up at midnight, 1, 2, 4 and 5.

This teething business sucks. And 3 at once? Poor baby!

But I am glad that she's finally getting her bigger teeth in. She'll be able to chew some foods better. She is my good eater, and she's starting to get a little frustrated with being fed. She's ready to go it on her own. And there are so few "toddler" foods in the baby food aisle. But once these teeth come in we can probably start giving her more of what the rest of the family is eating. I know she will be digging that!

And check out this award from Crackerjacks at Izzy 'N Emmy!And now, I need to figure out who to pass it on to! All they need to do is leave the following message on their post when they pass the award on to their chosen eight blogger buddies.

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

1. Nut Nut of Nutty Tales
2. Kelli of Gohn Crazy
3. Tina of Life in the Lapadula House
4. Lisa's Chaos
5. While the Baby Sleeps
6. Simply AnonyMOM
7. Holly from Tropic of Mom
8. Jenn of I Hate Whine

It's always hard to pick JUST 8 or 5 or however many the award says!! There are just toooooo many good blogs out there!!